BANGLADESH WITH OR WITHOUT
THE MUJIBCOAT
Abid Bahar
Mujib was the leader of East Bengali people who inspired them to fight against Pakistani autocratic rule in East Bengal. In his pre liberation and post liberation period Mujib seems to occupy two different roles: One being a nationalist leader and a revolutionary and the other, like most African, Middle Eastern and South American autocrats after the liberation betraying with the people and imposing a dictatorial regime.
Mujib's pre liberation legacy
Mujib's impressive personality and his oratory power impressed East Bengalis later known as Bangladeshis. Beginning from 1968 he was wearing black coat which later on came to be known as the mujibcoat. During the independence movement the mujibcoat became popular among Mujib followers. To Mujib supporters mujibcoat symbolized even Mujib consciousness (Chetona). It was the hero-worshiping of Mujib.
Mujib in Post Liberation Legacy
In his post liberation role he founded a one party rule known as BKSAL and closed all the opposition newspapers; his favoritism to his party man and his misrule led to a man-made famine during 1974-75 which took half a million lives. Those who opposed him, his special unit called Rakkhi bahini headed by Indian commanders killed close to 35 thousand opposition lives. Mujib's misrule and the becoming of Bangladesh in his time as a failed state was termed by Henry Kissinger as the "bottomless basket case." When we read Amartya Sen, the Nobel Laureate in Economics and his analysis of the Bangladesh's 1974 famine, and read the local newspapers, and the sayings of politicians of the time, we find the famine was "man made."
At the time, Bhasani warned Mujib:
"…your party workers are illegally trying to own houses, cars, and trying to become the owners of banks. It is your responsibility to stop them. If you fail, your future is going to be miserable. …
Syed Abul Maksud records about the Mujib period:
"AL leaders were engaged in nepotism, hijacking, sometimes forcefully occupying properties of innocent people, …in large scale smuggling of goods from India…"
Mujib left behind a legacy of being a kind leader but only to his party man and to the others who witnessed or personally suffered as being the killer of democracy in Bangladesh. Many call his post liberation legacy in Bangladesh as a period of Fascism in Bangladesh. Mujib is also rated as among the top 10 dictators who were brutally murdered in a mutiny by his party man with help from majors in the BD army. His death was remembered by some as the death of a dictator.
Despite Mujib's failures, Mujib left a powerful political party of followers now led by his daughter who continue to cherish Mujib's commanding role in the making of a civil war in 1971 leading upto the independence movement. His daughter after being reelected as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh reinvented Mujib as a great leader and restored him as the father of the nation. However, those people who lived during his misrule remember him with awe and consider him as an "abusive leader." They outright reject him to be honored as the symbolic " father of the nation."
Mujib in all his life fought for democracy, but he was a power-hungry politician and became an autocrat. No doubt, Mujib's pre independence role was appreciated unanimously by Bangladeshis. But his post liberation controversial role symbolizes him and his coat similar to Mousilini' with his black shirt cadre's fascism. True, the following quotes by Mujib shows he was a very powerful South Asian fascist.
. - "Ei durbhikhey onek lok mara geche, ami ki korum?"( I agree, in this famine many people died, so what you want me to do?
(During Famine in 1974)
- "Amar kombol ta kothay?"( Where is my blanket?)
(Gazi Golam Mostafa, the relief minister, a relative of Mujib was renowned for corruption)
- "Amar daine chor, bame chor, samne chor, pichone chor, sobdikei chor" ( There are thiefs on my right, on my left, in front of me and behind me, thiefs are all around me)
(Bhasani said in reply, "Mujib, ainay takaiya jare dekhos, seo chor" ( Mujib the person you see in the mirror is also a thief)
- "Kothay aaj sei Siraj Sikder?" ( Where are you Seraj Sikder?)
(After Siraj Sikder was allegedly killed by Rakhi Bahini)
"Tomra upjatira borong Bangali hoyea jao"
(Tribals! You better become Bengalis") triggering unrest in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
"Jatir Pitha hoiche bolei noitho lalghora Dabai Ditham"
( That I am the father of the nation, I can't be rude, otherwise I would have destroyed my enemy)
Observing Mujib's life, several questions come to mind. When Mujib was not a democrat, also Mujib was not a statesman but Mujib was a powerful nationalist leader, in 2012, can Bangladesh as an emerging democratic nation seeking the symbol of a democratic leader. afford to be in the AL business of hero worshipping Mujib, the pre liberation hero, but a post liberation enemy of his own people. Can Bangladesh accept him as the father of the nation?
Again, Mujib's life shows he was a very powerful South Asian fascist. However, many of his followers remembering Mujib's pre liberation contributions are involved in hero-worshiping of him. They put on the mujibcoat as the great symbol of a leader who dreamed of a "golden Bengal" but in reality it bears the fascist symbol of Mujib's misrule. Chatro League, jubo League and the AL cadres, follow his style in Bangladesh politics, and many consider Hasina's politics of "Khun or goom" (death or disappearance) was derived from Mujib's exemplary extra judiciary killing of Seraj Sikder. In Italy, Spain, Germany and in Eastern Europe in order to move forward historians identified them as being anti democratic and rejected their fascist leaders as the symbol of progress. What about Bangladesh?
Finally, can Bangladesh in its post liberation period afford to move forward with the imposing shadow of Mujib behind Hasina, inspiring the Mujib followers to a memory of great disappointment in nation building? Can Bangladesh move forward without Mujib and the mujibcoat, mujibcoat bearing the symbol of fascism in Bangladesh?
REFERENCES:
Jamshed Chowdhury, Awami League and its role betwen 1971 and 1975, Bangladesh: Failed Years —- 1972-75, based on his thesis dissertation for his PhD from Heidelberg University.
Submissions - Khan Saifur Rahman (Senior Advocate) Case of Mutiny leading to Murder or a Case of Murder Simpliciter? Defence arguments presented on behalf of Col. Syed Farook Rahman and Col Mohiuddin
Syed Muhammad Hussain, "A book, a coup, some thoughts"
http://www.newagebd.com/edit.html#2;http://www.bdsdf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=3478
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BdOsint/message/6656
Understanding Bangabandu and his BKSAL Strategies
http://dailyalochona.blogspot.ca/2009_11_24_archive.html
Abid Bahar, Searching For Bhasani, Citizen of the World., Xlibris, 2010.
(Abid Bahar, PhD specializes on Bangladesh and Myanmar history and politics, teaches in Canada on Ethics of Leadership).Email:abid.bahar@gmail.com
__._,_.___
